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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26409700">Shattered Mind</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestfantail/pseuds/forestfantail'>forestfantail</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternating POV Deke and Fitz, Background Daisy/Sousa, Deke meets his Season 1 grandparents, F/M, Season 7 AU, Season 7 team meets Bus team, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 12:08:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,371</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26409700</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/forestfantail/pseuds/forestfantail</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Season 7 team travels to Season 1 to ask FitzSimmons for help. Deke meets a younger Bobo and Nana and faces his greatest challenge yet--getting them to be a couple.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons, Skye | Daisy Johnson/Daniel Sousa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>80</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>234</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Set just before the series finale, when Jemma has forgotten Fitz and still has her implant. Details may be fuzzy--I just wanted the new team to meet the Bus team OK?</p>
<p>Title is a reference to Jemma's state of mind but also mine after the finale. What do I do now that this show is over?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Deke</strong>
</p><p>Deke shook his head. Did they not understand? Mack had said Deke liked to surround himself with sycophants, but it was just easier to be around people who nodded and went with whatever he suggested. His ideas were always solid, and he just didn’t have time to translate them. This had even been true before he was a time-traveler, when he was growing up in the Lighthouse. His mother had called him smart, but he thought something was wrong with everyone else, not that there was something special about him. God, he wished Bobo were here. He would understand.</p><p>“For the last time,” he said, “there’s no way I can fix it.” He held up the shattered sensor meant to remove Jemma’s implant. A few chunks fell off it. “Nathaniel broke it.” He didn’t want to call the man who had just tortured him ‘Malick’, because that reminded him too much of Freddy. And how none of this would have happened had he just shot him sooner.</p><p>“But you’re like a wizard,” said Sousa. “Right?” He looked around at the rest of the team. “You’re the one who fixes things?”</p><p>“Thank you,” said Deke, “and yes, I am the one who fixes things and some people have said that what I can do is like magic—”</p><p>“Get to the point, Deke,” said Mack.</p><p>“Right, Director. The point is that the device is shattered beyond repair, and I didn’t design it in the first place, and Nana never let me play with it, so I don’t know how it works.”</p><p>Mack turned to Jemma, who was holding Daisy’s hand and had a dazed look on her face. “Simmons, you think you could fix it?”</p><p>Jemma looked at him and blinked. “I’m sorry?”</p><p>Mack exchanged worried glances with Daisy. “The device Deke’s holding. Do you remember how to fix it?”</p><p>Jemma looked around at them. The team was standing in the comms area of the Zephyr. They had reclaimed the spaceship from Malick and his anarchists, but they hadn’t defeated them. And they were running out of time.</p><p>“Who’s Deke?” Jemma asked, and Deke heard several of them gasp. He walked over to her and placed the sensor in her hand, giving her a warm smile.</p><p>“I’m Deke,” he said. “I’m a friend.” He turned to the others. “It’s OK, guys. She went into the mind machine, and the implant removed all memories of Fitz. I guess it removed some other things too.”</p><p>“Who’s Fitz? Why do you keep saying I forgot him?” Jemma said.</p><p>“She doesn’t remember Fitz?” said Yo-Yo. “That’s messed up. That may be the most messed up thing that’s happened since I met all of you. And I talked to myself in the future.”</p><p>“You did what?” said Sousa.</p><p>“OK, let’s focus,” said Mack. He took the crumpled device from Jemma’s hand and gave her a gentle smile. “Do you remember this, Agent Simmons?”</p><p>She looked at the sensor and shook her head. “No.” She looked around at them, fear in her eyes. “Should I?”</p><p>“What do you remember?” asked Daisy.</p><p>Jemma massaged her temple like it hurt. “I—I don’t know.”</p><p>“Do you remember us? Do you remember me?”</p><p>“Skye?” said Jemma.</p><p>“Skye?” asked Sousa.</p><p>“Sousa, I remember you. You joined us in the 1950s.”</p><p>“OK,” said Daisy. “Two for two…kind of. What else?”</p><p>Jemma looked at the worried faces of the team. “I remember you all. Your faces. Moments. But there are all these holes, these gaps.” She started rubbing the back of her neck. “It’s like my mind is in pieces that I can’t put together.”</p><p>“Pieces solving a puzzle,” said Daisy. She said it so softly that Deke barely heard her. She seemed lost in thought.</p><p>“Wait, so what happens if we can’t fix the device?” asked Coulson. “Does she not get her memories back? Can’t we upload them like we did mine?”</p><p>Deke shook his head. “Not the ones that matter.”</p><p>“What do you mean? There’s something you’re not telling us,” said May.</p><p>Deke looked at his Nana, at the confused expression on her face. “Nathaniel was looking for Fitz because he said Fitz was the only one who could stop them. He said that in all the futures that Sibyl could see, the only one where we come out on top is the one where we get Fitz back.”</p><p>“And the only way we get Fitz back—“ said May.</p><p>“Is by removing the implant, which only Fitz can do,” finished Coulson. They all stared at Jemma, who was gripping Daisy’s arm and looked like she might start to cry. “We never catch a break, do we?” he said.</p><p>“Deke, did you fix the time drive?” asked Mack.</p><p>“Yes. We’re ready to jump.”</p><p>“Can’t we just go to a different point in time and give you months or years to fix it? Then we come back and end this?” said Mack.</p><p>Deke shook his head. Again. Would they not listen? “I don’t know how many times I can tell you this—I can’t fix it. I don’t have the designs, and I don’t even know how it worked or what exactly it did. And even if I did, Nana and Bobo were willing to kill her and destroy her mind to keep the implant in place. It would have built-in fail-safes to keep it from being removed by anything but the sensor they made. Me removing it would probably kill her.” He looked at Jemma, his only family and the only person here who loved him. Well, she had before she forgot who he was. “You might be willing to take that risk, but I’m not.”</p><p>“Then what do we do?” said Yo-Yo. She looked around at the rest of the team. “There’s always something.”</p><p>Mack looked at Coulson. “Don’t ask me,” said Coulson. “Just cause I’m kind of a computer genius now doesn’t mean I know anything about brain surgery.”</p><p>“Maybe,” said Mack, a hesitation they weren’t used to hearing in his voice, “maybe we jump to the future where they have more advanced tech and hire some scientists.”</p><p>“No,” said Daisy, “the only one who can figure this out is Fitz.”</p><p>“Yeah but we don’t know where he is. That’s the whole problem.”</p><p>“Sure we do,” said Daisy. She looked at the team’s blank faces. “Well, not the Fitz that built the implant. But we know where he’s going to be before then. We know where he’s going to be for years. And we have a time machine.”</p><p>“Wait, do you mean…?” asked Deke.</p><p>“I think she does,” said Coulson.</p><p>Deke grinned. “I get to see Baby Bobo?”</p><p>Mack sighed. “No, we’d have to go to a time when he would be able to understand the device.”</p><p>“And a time when he had her to help him,” said May. She had put her hand on Jemma’s shoulder, and Deke had never seen May’s eyes look so sad. “I think they’ll need each other.”</p><p>Daisy smiled. “I know exactly when that is.”</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>Fitz</strong>
</p><p>Fitz didn’t know why they were all staring at him. “It’s science,” he said. They never understood. They didn’t even understand enough to realize how brilliant his ideas were. Unappreciated, till the end.</p><p>“OK, so the whatsit—”</p><p>“Portable neuroimaging device,” Fitz said, taking the enlarged holographic object from Ward’s hand and placing it carefully back in place above the holotable. He pleaded with his eyes at Simmons to help him. The team was in the lab on the Bus, and they were <em>touching his stuff</em>, for goodness sake.</p><p>“Right, the whatsit, it tells you what the person is thinking—”</p><p>Simmons scoffed, and Fitz gave an exaggerated sigh. Honestly. He was this close to slamming his head on the table.</p><p>“No,” said Simmons. “There is nothing that can read a person’s thoughts.” Good old Simmons. What would he do without her?</p><p>“But then…” Skye looked confused. “What does it do?”</p><p>“It tells us brain patterns, lets us know what areas of the brain are stimulated.”</p><p>“So, it could tell us if the guy is lying?”</p><p>Fitz turned off the holotable. Class time was over. “We can try. But honestly, this particular method is experimental.”</p><p>“We could use a test subject,” said Simmons. She looked at each of their faces, May and Coulson and Skye and Ward. All of them took a step back.</p><p>“I think we’ll let you work on this some more, before we do any human trials,” said Coulson. “The rest of us will focus on the non-sciency angles.”</p><p>The team was tracking down a new threat, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had gone rogue. The agent was planning to sell top-level intel, and it was their job to stop them. Apparently, the agent was even better than Ward at undercover and deception, so they needed to figure out what was in their mind without their cooperation. They hadn’t been given the agents name or gender or any details other than potential whereabouts and a codeword: lemons. The order had come from the highest level.</p><p>Fitz was glad when the others left—well it was more like they ran—from the lab. “You were going to test it on them?” he asked Simmons.</p><p>“No,” Jemma said. “It doesn’t need testing—the science is sound, and it works perfectly as it is.” She gave him a look, a look that said she was scolding him. “I was trying to get them out of here before you started chucking holographic objects at their heads.”</p><p>“It’s just so frustrating,” he said. He was whining, he knew he was. But he could only complain to her, and she would always listen. “This is cutting edge tech, stuff that probably will save the day, yet again, and they look at me like I’m bonkers.”</p><p>“To be fair to them, you are a bit bonkers.”</p><p>He fiddled with the silencer he’d been adjusting for the Night-Night gun. “Thanks.”</p><p>“But you’re also the most brilliant man I’ve ever known.” He glanced up at her. She was giving him that rare look of adoration that made his insides squirm. It was like all her affection for him had been unveiled and exposed for all the world to see, when she looked at him like that. And it made him feel at once like he could fly and like he was sinking to somewhere deep and dark, like the depths of the ocean. Because if this warm smile encompassed all of her feelings for him, then they were not at all on the same page. His feelings for her were so big he was afraid to feel them all at once. He’d only poked around the edges of those feelings, but there was some pretty terrifying stuff in there. He didn’t know what would happen to his face if he tried to express all he felt for Jemma Simmons with it. He looked back down at his work.</p><p>“And they’re not doubting you,” she was saying. “They know you’re brilliant; they just don’t know how to understand you.” She touched his hand, which she was doing a lot lately. “I’m the only one who does that.”</p><p>He jerked his hand from hers and ran it through his curls. “I’ll get the device ready. And the other things Coulson asked for.” He saw that she looked a little hurt. “Thanks, Jemma,” he said. He didn’t know what else to say, which was becoming a habit with him ever since she had been infected with the alien virus a few weeks ago. He was finding that he had so much to say whenever he looked at her that he couldn’t say anything.</p><p>The suspect was thought to be inhabiting a lighthouse on a lake in Ontario, which is where the Bus was now headed. The plan had been to draw the agent out for a meeting with Ward and his fists, but they hadn’t had any success contacting the lighthouse. It’s not like there was a phone number in the local phonebook that said “Lighthouse.” (They had actually checked the phonebook to make sure, and it had been Skye’s idea, when not even she could turn up anything about the place online. Coulson had looked so proud.)</p><p>They were going in to check out the site. It was bright and sunny, which made May’s dark blue leather jacket and black sunglasses stand out as she stepped off the plane. How did she excel at undercover, when she was always so scary, Fitz wondered? Her steely scowl and clothes would scream Dangerous Secret Agent to him even if he weren’t already aware of her identity. He’d never even heard her laugh.</p><p>She was taking the lead with Ward, with the others following once they’d cleared the way. They aimed to capture the agent and bring them back to the plane, but they weren’t holding out hope. The suspect could be long gone by the time they arrived, which meant that Fitz and Simmons would have to inspect the place for clues. Fitz didn’t know when he had sunk to the level of crime scene investigator. Simmons loved the work, though, so he tried not to complain.</p><p>May and Ward didn’t find anyone in the lighthouse. Coulson brought Skye, Fitz, and Simmons to search for clues, but Fitz was certain there were none once he saw the place. It was mostly empty, except for a few rusted paint cans and a drop cloth or two over cracked furniture. Sunlight poured through floor to ceiling windows that showed a clear view of the lake.</p><p>“It doesn’t look like it’s been occupied in a while,” said Fitz.</p><p>“Or that’s what someone wants us to think,” said Simmons. She was always so eager to look for the adventure in everything. He wanted to say, “Sometimes an empty lighthouse is just an empty lighthouse,” but he didn’t. The excitement on her face in moments like these was one of the reasons he had followed her into the field, one of the reasons he would follow her anywhere. She was standing by the window, holding a new piece of tech they’d designed. Her eyes were bright—she was always so thrilled to get to play with new toys. The sunlight was caught in her hair, making it shimmer with natural highlights—</p><p>“Ahem,” said Skye. She didn’t clear her throat—she actually said “Ahem.” Fitz looked at her.</p><p>“You seem a little distracted there, Fitz.”</p><p>He could feel the color rising in his cheeks. “Yeah I was just admiring the—” he gestured past Simmons at the glossy blue lake, “scenery.”</p><p>Skye nodded, though she was wearing a small smirk.</p><p>“Huh,” said Coulson. He was standing at an empty built-in bookshelf along the back wall of the main room.</p><p>“Find something?” asked Skye. None of them had found anything. One big wild goose chase, Fitz was certain.</p><p>“I love the classics,” said Coulson.</p><p>Skye walked over to him. “Well there aren’t any on that bookshelf.”</p><p>Coulson smiled. “If I was designing this place, you know what I’d do?” he asked. He reached up and pushed on a board at the back of a shelf. It moved, and then the entire wall moved, swiveling soundlessly to reveal a dark tunnel. Coulson looked over his shoulder at May, who raised an eyebrow. “I’ve always wanted to do that,” he said.</p><p>Ward and May led the team down the tunnel, with Fitz’s D.W.A.R.F.s buzzing about in front of them. Fitz stared at his tablet and called out to the team as quietly as he could.</p><p>“No heat signatures. Nothing yet.”</p><p>They kept walking, in complete darkness. Fitz could tell from the sensors in his tech and the sensations in his own feet that they were sloping down, like they were walking on a ramp. He saw something on the tablet just as he heard several of the D.W.A.R.F.s thwack against something hard.</p><p>“Wall up ahead. Thick, metal.” He was trying to read the data coming in from Dopey. “There’s a space behind it. Maybe it’s a door?”</p><p>Coulson switched on a flashlight. In front of them was a large door, with a wall panel beside it. The door was emblazoned with an enormous S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle. “Would you look at that.”</p><p>“This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. base?” asked Skye.</p><p>“Not that I’ve ever heard of,” said Coulson.</p><p>“A secret base. Cool.”</p><p>“If this is high-level clearance we shouldn’t go—” Ward was saying, just as Coulson placed a hand on the sensor on the control panel.</p><p>“Welcome, Agent Coulson,” said an electronic voice from the wall. The door split apart in the center and opened wide, revealing a small enclosed room. An elevator.</p><p>“That explains why it doesn’t look big enough from the outside to house all of this,” said Fitz. “This is all built underneath the lighthouse.”</p><p>“It’s bigger on the inside,” Simmons whispered. Fitz nudged her hand with his, and she gave him one of her nose-scrunched-up smiles. She seemed to be glowing in the light from her tablet. God she was beautiful. She was beautiful, and he was a fool.</p><p>“Hey, FitzSimmons, you coming?” Skye was motioning for them to follow the rest of the team on to the elevator.</p><p>Fitz grabbed Simmons’s arm to stop her. “Are you sure it’s not a trap? An elevator to who knows where? The bad agent could be down there.”</p><p>“Which is why we’re here,” said May.</p><p>“Get on the elevator, Fitz,” said Coulson. “That’s an order.”</p><p>May’s face also said, “Get on the elevator, Fitz,” although not as politely. He took a deep breath and followed Simmons into the small space.</p><p>“How do we know which button to—” said Skye, but the elevator started moving as soon as the doors closed.</p><p>“Guess it’s not really a choose-your-own-adventure type thing,” said Coulson. He seemed to be enjoying all of this way too much. Fitz could see why Simmons had been taken in so easily by Coulson’s talk of thrilling adventures and helping those in need when he had first approached them about joining his team. Coulson and Simmons had that same love of the unknown. Fitz himself felt queasy.</p><p>It felt like they were dropping into the bowels of the Earth, but then after a few minutes they slowed to a stop and the doors slid open. This time there was a distant light spilling from a room with an open entrance. They could hear sounds—was that music or muffled voices? May raised her fists and Ward his weapon, and the team crept down another empty hallway toward the source of the activity.</p><p>Fitz was too terrified to make a sound (except for the thudding of his own heart, which was banging so hard any seismic sensors in the vicinity must be picking it up). Simmons’s arm bumped against his in the dim light, and she gripped him like a vice. He could feel her trembling, but this time he didn’t think it was from excitement.</p><p>May and Ward got into position by the open doorway. It was clear now that the sounds were music, accompanied by some off-key singing. A man’s voice was singing something about stabbing someone in the heart.</p><p>May and Ward looked at Coulson, who gave them a nod. The two sprang into action, slipping through the doorway. Ward said, “Hands up!” at the same time a man’s excited voice called out, “May!”</p><p>Coulson gave Skye a confused look and then followed the others into the room. Skye trailed after him, and Fitz and Simmons took a glance at one another before heading in as well.</p><p>“Hands up,” said Ward again.</p><p>“OK, OK,” said the man. He raised his arms. He was standing in the center of the room on a raised platform, an array of computer screens in front of him. It looked like a command center.</p><p>“Lemons?” said Coulson.</p><p>“Yep, that’s me.”</p><p>The man had blue eyes, messy short hair, and a huge grin on his face. “I’ve been waiting for you guys. It’s so good to see you.” He was talking to the team, but it seemed like he was looking right at Fitz.</p><p>“We’re happy to see you too,” said Coulson. “We’ll be taking you to prison now.”</p><p>“Oh, no,” said the man, still wearing a big smile. As he talked metal doors slammed shut over all the exits to the room. “That’s not what’s about to happen at all.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Deke</strong>
</p>
<p>Deke was so excited. Sure, the scary Ward guy that everyone had warned him about was pointing a gun at him, but also he could see Nana and Bobo! His plan was working. He was glad the team had finally listened to him. </p>
<p>His grandfather looked younger. (Why did he look younger every time he saw him when Deke was getting older? It was a cruel trick of the universe.) Fitz also looked terrified, and Jemma was gripping his arm tightly. Aww, so cute.</p>
<p>“Hey guys, listen—” Deke started to say, but May cut him off.</p>
<p>“Open the doors, or I will open them with your face.”</p>
<p>Deke laughed. Agent May hadn’t changed, had she? Except for the being able to feel other people’s feelings thing, that was new.</p>
<p>“Now May, no one needs to get hurt. I’m one of the good guys. Trust me, we’re all going to be friends.”</p>
<p>May raised an eyebrow.</p>
<p>“OK, maybe not you and me, but you will definitely tolerate me some day.”</p>
<p>“Not sure today is that day, friend,” said Coulson. “Open the doors.”</p>
<p>Deke shook his head. “No, see, I have to convince you to trust me. And locking us all in here gives me time to do that.”</p>
<p>“Being imprisoned doesn’t usually bring out my trusting side,” said Coulson.</p>
<p>“Can I start shooting him, sir?” asked Ward.</p>
<p>“Hey, hey, hey,” said Deke. “OK, how do I convince you? The truth? Do you want to know the truth?”</p>
<p>“That would be a good start,” said Coulson.</p>
<p>“I sent the message that brought you here. Or rather, my associates did.” The team was waiting nearby (“and watching with popcorn” Daisy had said) to monitor his progress. They didn’t want to risk sending in anyone who might mess up the timeline any more than was necessary (like a robot Coulson or a Quake), so they were giving him a chance to show what he could do. No pressure, or anything.</p>
<p>“Your associates,” said Coulson. “Who are you working for?”</p>
<p>“Oh, no, no, it’s S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m with S.H.I.E.L.D. Just, a different S.H.I.E.L.D.”</p>
<p>The team looked at him like he was out of his mind. It was a look with which he was familiar.</p>
<p>“You didn’t answer my question about shooting him, sir,” said Ward.</p>
<p>“I’m from the future, OK?” said Deke. He’d had experience saying that before. And from the expressions on their faces he was pretty sure he’d have a similar reception. “I know how that sounds. But I am. I’m from the future, and I need your help.”</p>
<p>“You need our help,” said Fitz. “You can travel through time, but you need our help?”</p>
<p>Deke smiled. “Wow, I’ve missed you.”</p>
<p>“Fitz, do you know this guy?” asked Coulson.</p>
<p>“No, not at all.”</p>
<p>“Anyone else?”</p>
<p>The rest of the team shook their heads.</p>
<p>“Oh, I’ve got a way!” said Deke. He looked at Jemma. “Jemma, you fell out of a plane recently. You were infected with an alien virus. That must have been terrible. Sorry.” He looked at Nana’s baby face. She looked so young and innocent. And confused.</p>
<p>“How do you know that?” she asked.</p>
<p>Coulson spoke up. “That was classified. But you know a lot about S.H.I.E.L.D., to have sent that message with the Director’s code.” He smiled. “Oh, I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. A man from the future, with knowledge he shouldn’t have. You’re the Clairvoyant.”</p>
<p>Deke didn’t know what that was, but from the sudden increase in tension in the room, he was pretty sure it wasn’t good. “I don’t know anything about that. Honestly, I’m from the future. I know about you falling from the plane because you told me,” he said to Jemma.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying I believe the time travel thing,” said Skye (or Daisy? He had been told her name was Skye at this point, but clearly he wasn’t up to date on all the facts here). “But it would make sense. That would explain why the Clairvoyant has knowledge he shouldn’t and is always one step ahead of us. And why he’s called the Clairvoyant.”</p>
<p>“Look, I’m not this Clairvoyant person,” said Deke. “Unless that’s a good thing, then yes, I can totally be the Clairvoyant.” The team stared at him. “But I’m guessing from your expressions that that isn’t good, so I’m not—totally, 100%, I am not the Clairvoyant.”</p>
<p>Skye/Daisy rolled her eyes. “Coulson—”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’ve had enough of this. Ward, do what you need to do,” said Coulson.</p>
<p>“Finally,” said Ward.</p>
<p>“Hey no, listen—”</p>
<p>“We will not listen to any more of your lies. We will discuss this when you are our prisoner and these doors are open. You have no bargaining chips, unless you’re prepared for Ward to shoot you,” said Coulson.</p>
<p>“Well no, I’d prefer it not come to that,” said Deke. Ward grabbed him and handcuffed his hands behind his back. Ward was definitely not Mister Happy Fun Guy. Why had they trusted him in the first place; he couldn’t remember?</p>
<p>“You’re making a mistake,” said Deke. “You have to believe me if you want to save Fitz and Simmons in the future. They’re in danger.”</p>
<p>“Is that a threat?” asked Coulson. Ward dragged Deke across the room to the team and not gently, like he was angry that Deke would endanger FitzSimmons. As though Ward was one to be worried about FitzSimmons! He didn’t know all the details, but he knew this man had betrayed them.</p>
<p>“No, I wouldn’t—” Deke sighed. “You know this never works. None of you ever listen to me. I don’t know why I thought it would be different this time.”</p>
<p>“Are you saying you’ve lived this time before?” asked Coulson.</p>
<p>“No. I’m saying I’ve known you before, in the future, and you don’t believe me then either, you even lock me up when we first meet, and you’re wrong then too, and I—”  </p>
<p>“Permission to shut him up?” asked May.</p>
<p>“Granted,” said Coulson.</p>
<p>“Wait—” said Deke, just as May raised her fist. And just as the doors to the hallway opened, revealing two figures.</p>
<p>“Hi,” said Coulson. The LMD Coulson.</p>
<p>“We thought it would go like this,” said Daisy. She smiled at the shocked looks on the faces of the team. “We’re here to explain.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>xxx</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Fitz</strong>
</p>
<p>“I had this,” the man they kept calling “Deke” was saying. And by “they” Fitz meant a second Coulson and a Skye with blonde hair. He didn’t know what the hell was happening. Simmons was outright holding his hand now. He didn’t know which of them she was comforting, but he wasn’t about to let go.</p>
<p>“You didn’t have it,” the other Skye was saying. “They were about to knock you unconscious.”</p>
<p>“May wasn’t really about to do that, were you May?” May’s expression said otherwise.</p>
<p>“OK,” said the original Coulson. “I’m going to need an explanation, and I’m going to need it yesterday.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think going back in time to yesterday makes sense, but maybe that would help convince you--” said Deke.</p>
<p>Fitz’s team looked as confused as he felt, and the blonde Skye raised a hand at Deke asking him to stop. “Play time’s over, Deke. Let us handle this.”</p>
<p>“We’re sorry about all this,” said the new Coulson. “And about that.” He nodded toward Deke. “We didn’t think it would work. But it was kind of funny.”</p>
<p>“Thanks,” muttered Deke.</p>
<p>“Who are you?” asked Fitz’s Coulson.</p>
<p>The other Coulson raised his arms, welcoming them to look at him. “Who do you think?”</p>
<p>The Coulsons both smirked. “You expect me to believe you’re me?”</p>
<p>The new Coulson sighed. “I knew you were gonna say that.”</p>
<p>The blonde Skye, who was wearing some kind of tactical suit and honestly looked really cool, was smiling at the other her. “Wow,” she said. “I didn’t realize how weird this would be.”</p>
<p>“You’re telling me,” said the Skye standing beside Fitz.</p>
<p>“OK,” said Blonde Skye, looking around at the rest of them. “Here’s the deal. This guy—” she pointed at Deke, “was telling the truth. We are from the future. And we do need your help.”</p>
<p>“You think you can just walk in here and tell us you’re us from the future, and we’ll believe you?” said Coulson.</p>
<p>The Future Coulson shrugged. “Kind of.”</p>
<p>“Look, I know it’s not easy to believe, but we are from the future. And you—” Blonde Skye was looking right at Simmons now, “are in danger.”</p>
<p>Fitz squeezed Simmons’s hand. “What do you mean she’s in danger? Is something about to happen to her?”</p>
<p>“No, not now, you’re in danger in the future. Our Simmons is in danger, it’s—” Blonde Skye looked at Other Coulson. “I didn’t think how hard this would be.”</p>
<p>“See?” said Deke. “It’s not easy.”</p>
<p>“You stop talking,” said May.</p>
<p>“I’m with them,” said Deke. “I’m not a bad guy.”</p>
<p>“I know. I just don’t want to hear you talk,” she said. The new Coulson gave her an affectionate smile, which seemed to startle her.</p>
<p>“How do we convince you?” he asked.</p>
<p>“That you’re us from the future and this isn’t some ruse I don’t understand?” asked OG Coulson.</p>
<p>“Yeah, that.”</p>
<p>“We need proof.”</p>
<p>“What proof?” asked Blonde Skye.</p>
<p>“First of all, what danger is Simmons in? There must be a lot at stake for you to risk disrupting the past.”</p>
<p>“There is,” said the new Coulson. He looked at Blonde Skye. “We’ll have to tell them eventually anyway.”</p>
<p>Blonde Skye looked torn and sad, a look Fitz recognized from his own Skye. They were the same person; he would swear to it. This other Skye looked, well, older. Stronger. More confident. Exactly what their own Skye had the potential to become, if she became the agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. that she was training to be. He had to admit, if this was some kind of trick, it was a very good one.</p>
<p>Blonde Skye turned back toward the hallway and called, “Simmons?” Beside him Jemma gasped.</p>
<p>A voice, a voice he knew like he knew his own, responded. “Is that my name? It doesn’t sound correct.” A woman stepped into the light beside the other two. “It sounds incomplete.”</p>
<p>Blonde Skye gave this other Simmons—because that’s exactly who this other woman was, a second living, breathing Jemma f-ing Simmons—a reassuring squeeze of the forearm. She gestured to Fitz and his team. “Do you recognize anyone?”</p>
<p>This new Simmons, with her darker clothes and frightened stance, looked into their faces. She held Fitz’s gaze for a long moment before shaking her head. “I don’t know. That one looks like you,” she said to Blonde Skye. “With different hair.” Then she saw the other Simmons for the first time, and her expression changed to one of terror. “What is happening?”</p>
<p>“It’s OK,” said Blonde Skye. She rubbed Simmons’s arm and looked at the man Ward was still holding. “Deke?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” said Deke. “It’s OK, Nana, I mean Jemma.” He looked over his shoulder. “Look, can you just let me go already?”</p>
<p>Ward looked at the original Coulson, who nodded. Ward uncuffed Deke, who rushed to Jemma’s side. She leaned into him, and he patted her shoulder. “It’s going to be OK, Jemma. We’re going to get you help.”</p>
<p>“What’s wrong with her?” asked Simmons. Fitz turned to look at her beside him; she looked almost as frightened as her doppelganger across the room.</p>
<p>“She’s lost her memories,” said Deke.</p>
<p>“All of them?” asked the not-blonde Skye, who was looking as concerned about the distressed Simmons as she would have been for her own.</p>
<p>“No,” said Blonde Skye. “Just the ones about—” she stopped and looked at Fitz. All three of them did—the other Coulson and Deke and the Simmons from the future who was starting to cry.</p>
<p>The new Coulson spoke. “She’s lost all of her memories of Fitz. And that’s,” one side of his mouth ticked up in a sad smile, “that’s a lot of memories.”</p>
<p>“She doesn’t remember me?” asked Fitz. Now he could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on him.</p>
<p>“You?” said the confused Simmons. “You’re the one they keep asking me about?”</p>
<p>“Fitz,” said Blonde Skye, as though trying to remind her of the name. “Remember? That’s Fitz.”</p>
<p>Simmons shook her head and tried to back away. “No, I don’t know him, and I don’t know what’s happening. Everyone just please.” She brought her hands up to her head, as though it was hurting her. “Please stop.”</p>
<p>Blonde Skye nodded at Deke, and he started to guide Simmons away. “I’ll take her back to the Zephyr.”</p>
<p>The new Coulson looked at his doppelganger and opened his mouth to speak, but OG Coulson cut him off. “I know what you’re going to say,” he said. “What do you need from us?”</p>
<p>New Coulson smiled. “At last, someone who gets it.” The two Coulsons smiled at one another, and Blonde Skye rolled her eyes.</p>
<p>“We need him,” she said, looking at Fitz.</p>
<p>“You think I can help her?” asked Fitz. He was rubbing circles into Simmons’s back. She had yet to recover from seeing herself. Could one ever recover from that, he wondered?</p>
<p>“You have to. If we’re going to save the world.” New Coulson looked at their confused expressions. “Oh, did I not mention that part? The fate of the world is also at stake.”</p>
<p>“It always is,” said OG Coulson.</p>
<p>“Right?” said New Coulson.</p>
<p>“OK, you two can get a room later,” said Blonde Skye. “Well?” she asked Fitz.</p>
<p>He looked at Simmons, his Simmons, and the fear he saw in her eyes hit him like a thousand punches to the gut. “What do you need me to do?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Deke</strong>
</p>
<p>Considering everything, Deke thought things were going pretty well. He had always been good at making the best of challenging situations. And this situation wasn’t even the worst he’d been in. I mean, at least they didn’t have alien overlords yet, right?</p>
<p>“They suck,” he was saying to Fitz, whose eyes were wide.</p>
<p>“You mean the Kree?”</p>
<p>“No, I mean aliens. Like, all of them. Every alien I’ve met has been terrible. Except Enoch. He was a valuable member of our family.”</p>
<p>“Our family?” Deke was watching Fitz prep the device they were going to use to scan Simmons’s brain. They were in a lab on a plane—seriously, what was it with these people and living on planes?</p>
<p>“Oh, not a real family. Our team. It’s like a family, that’s what I meant. We just love each other so much.” He glanced at Past May, who was glaring at him as she walked by the glass doors of the lab. He could feel the love from here.</p>
<p>They had decided to tell the team from the past as little as possible about the future. Mack repeated the thing about ripples not waves (they had already created tsunamis at this point, but Deke wasn’t going to contradict him), and Daisy said “let’s just try not to totally freak them out.” Things that might freak them out definitely included the fact that Fitz and Simmons had a grandson who was older than them. (And also included showing up in a previous time wearing their faces, but, hey, you do what you have to do.)</p>
<p>Deke had been sent to the Bus to help Fitz and Simmons with the device. They decided to keep the rest of the team on the Zephyr, to keep contact between the future and the past to a minimum. LMD Coulson had been disappointed. He’d wanted to hang out with himself. “He said we could go for a ride in Lola,” he’d complained.</p>
<p>“Fun comes after we save the world,” said Mack. “Everyone except Deke stay on the Zephyr, that’s an order.” He turned to Simmons, who was sitting in a chair staring at the floor. “Except Simmons, whatever they need her for, of course.” He looked like he was about to speak to her, but then he stopped. No one knew what to say.</p>
<p>So now here was Deke hanging out with Bobo in the lab. It was fun. Except for the tragic circumstances and the potential end of humanity stuff. But that was his normal.</p>
<p>“You want to see something cool?” asked Fitz.</p>
<p>“Uh, do you even have to ask?”</p>
<p>Fitz started up the holotable and began sorting through different bits of technology.</p>
<p>“Glowy table thingy, nice, nice, although I’ve seen something similar.”</p>
<p>“No, that’s not the cool thing. Well, it is cool, but this,” Fitz plucked a small object from among the others and expanded it in front of Deke. “This is really cool.”</p>
<p>“Whoa. Is that a human eye?”</p>
<p>“With an internal power source, camera, and kill switch inside. Never seen anything like it.”</p>
<p>“I have,” said Deke. Fitz looked at him in surprise. “Oh, there was this guy, Death—friend. I called him DeathFriend, because you know, he was my friend but he was really into death, and I was like friend, that’s weird, to be obsessed with death. But, yeah, anyway, so he was like full cyborg, and he let me look at his robot eye at a wedding. The wedding of a random couple, you wouldn’t know them.”</p>
<p>“So you know where this technology comes from? You’ve seen it before?”</p>
<p>“No, I mean, I’ve seen where it ends up. In the future.”</p>
<p>Fitz shook his head. “I still can’t believe you’re from the future. The kind of time travel you describe would create all sorts of paradoxes.”</p>
<p>“Yep, that is so true.”</p>
<p>Fitz pulled the artificial eye towards him and began looking at it more closely. “I was thinking, from the description you gave of the implant in Simmons, that this tech might hold some kind of key. Maybe the same people who built it are the ones who build the one in her.”</p>
<p>“Nope,” said Deke. Fitz blinked at him. “Maybe though. Since we don’t know who did build her implant. Yeah, that’s a mystery.”</p>
<p>Fitz turned the eye so it seemed to be looking at Deke. “It would also be really good for pranks, but Simmons says I shouldn’t. She’s so uptight, that one.”</p>
<p>“Oh my god I was just thinking how fun it would be to prank Mack with this. He hates robot stuff.”</p>
<p>“Who’s Mack?”</p>
<p>“A friend-person. Not important. Anyway, so, Simmons is uptight, huh? I’d love to hear more about you two. Back in the day. Past. Whatever.”</p>
<p>Fitz seemed thrilled to have someone to talk to about Simmons. He told Deke about her aversion to birds, the way she made his favorite sandwich, and about how she once mixed up Chlorine and Chloride in conversation while drunk and had never forgiven herself. Deke snort-laughed at Fitz’s impression of her. It was spot on. Fitz was just telling him a hilarious story about Simmons sneezing on a Faraday cup (classic!), when his Nana walked in with his Nana. Deke wasn’t going to get used to that.</p>
<p>“What are you two laughing about?” asked Baby Nana.</p>
<p>“It had sensitive chemical components?” Deke was wiping tears from his eyes and trying to catch his breath. “That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”</p>
<p>“Right?” said Fitz. He had a bright grin on his face. This Bobo was way more fun than his other one. Maybe it was something to do with the changes they’d made to the timeline? Deke wasn’t sure, but he wasn’t complaining.</p>
<p>“Fitz, can you help me here?” Baby Jemma was setting up the equipment and giving Fitz a stern look. Some things apparently did not change.</p>
<p>Deke’s Nana looked frightened, and he moved to her side. “Jemma, you OK?”</p>
<p>She sighed. “No. I’m not sure of a lot right now, but I know I am not OK.”</p>
<p>“Sorry,” he said. “They’re going to help you.”</p>
<p>“The girl who looks like me and the strange man who smells nice?”</p>
<p>“That’s an interesting description, but yes, yes they are going to help.” He held her hand as she sat in a chair and Baby Nana placed a helmet on her head.</p>
<p>“We’re going to scan the dimensions of the implant now. That’s the first step.” This Nana was just as caring and kind as the Nana he knew. He felt what he always felt when he was with her—that she reminded him of his mother. And that protecting her was worth every bit of this trouble.</p>
<p>“I’m going to give you a sedative,” Baby Nana was saying. “You’ve been through a lot, and if you’re going to heal, you’ll need rest.”</p>
<p>His Nana was gripping his arm tightly, but she gradually released him as the sedative took hold. “You’ll be here,” she said.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Deke said. “I’ll be here the whole time.”</p>
<p>Her eyes closed and her head fell back against the headrest of the chair. Fitz was staring at her like he had never seen anything like her before, something between longing and pain warring on his face. </p>
<p>“Now,” said Baby Nana, “let’s see what we can do.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>xxx</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Fitz</strong>
</p>
<p>It was weird. Fitz had never met this man before, but he felt so familiar. Deke was supposed to be from his future though. Maybe this feeling of familiarity gave some credence to Fitz’s theory that time couldn’t be altered, that it existed already, locked into place. Somewhere, on this plane of time through which they were passing, he must already know Deke. And be best friends with him, that much was obvious.</p>
<p>They had so much in common. Deke understood and appreciated his tech in a way that no one else did, not even Simmons. In discussions about tech, Deke pushed him and challenged him in ways that only Simmons ever had. Really, Deke reminded him of Simmons a bit. Fitz had been a little concerned about Deke’s close relationship with Simmons—what was he to her in the future? But his fears had been quelled by Deke’s reaction when Fitz suggested that the two might be romantically involved. Deke had almost choked to death on his sandwich.</p>
<p>“What,” Deke said, still trying to catch his breath, “the hell, man. Don’t say things like that when my mouth is full.” He coughed a couple more times and then shook his head for the hundredth time. “No. Just no. I would never.” He shuddered. “Please don’t ask me that again.”</p>
<p>Fitz wasn’t sure why Deke was so repulsed at the idea—Simmons was attractive and brilliant and charming and kind. She was perfect. Definitely not repulsive. Maybe Deke was gay or something? Whatever the reason, Fitz was relieved that he didn’t have to be jealous. He liked Deke.</p>
<p>“Even if she wasn’t—” Deke shuddered again, “I still would never butt in on your territory like that, buddy.”</p>
<p>“My territory?” asked Fitz. “Simmons isn’t—we’re not.” He sighed. “She’s not my territory.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” said Deke. He looked shocked. “You two aren’t…? Yeah, I never heard this part of the story. I kind of thought you two were always together. I can’t imagine you not being together.”</p>
<p>“We are together. As friends. And partners. Lab partners. But we’re not <em>together</em> together.” Fitz could feel himself blushing. He wasn’t sure why he had brought up this topic. It was a dangerous one. He had been increasingly aware of his own feelings for Simmons ever since he had watched her drop out of the plane. She had taken his heart with her on that freefall. So yeah, he was well aware of his feelings. But Simmons wasn’t. And he wanted to keep it that way.</p>
<p>“But you,” Deke looked incredibly confused. “You want to be? Together? Right?”</p>
<p>Fitz did his best to shrug nonchalantly and not be too obvious as he glanced around to make certain Simmons hadn’t followed them to the Bus’s dining area. “We’re just workmates.”</p>
<p>Deke looked briefly horrified, but then he nodded and took another bite of his buffalo and mozzarella sandwich. “You’re right; it is delicious,” he said around a mouthful.</p>
<p>“Right? She makes her own pesto aioli.” Fitz smiled. “Simmons is the best.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” said Deke. “She. Is.” He said it with emphasis, like he was trying to imply something. He was a little weird, this man who claimed he was from the future, but then, so was Fitz. Fitz could never judge someone else for social awkwardness.</p>
<p>Simmons came in then, carrying her tablet and biting her lip the way she did when she was nervous or when she was attacking a particularly challenging problem. Right now Fitz suspected it was a little of both.</p>
<p>“Fitz, did you see the results? I think the implant is somehow programmed to match her DNA. I didn’t even think that was possible. It’s genius.” She looked up at him from her tablet, and Fitz saw the fear in her eyes. This mission had frightened her more than anything they had faced since entering the field. And why shouldn’t it? Seeing her future self in danger—she was living a scenario from the wildest of nightmares. He took the tablet from her and placed it on the counter beside him.</p>
<p>“We’ll solve it. We always do,” he said. “Come sit and eat something.”</p>
<p>Deke stood. “You can have my seat, Na-Jemma.” He picked up his plate and took it with him. “I should go confer with my team about some very important future-type things. You two take some time.” He turned back to look at them and said pointedly, “<em>Alone</em>.”  Then he left.</p>
<p>Simmons gave Fitz a questioning look as she sat beside him, and he shrugged. “He’s an odd one, but I like him.”</p>
<p>Simmons picked up the other half of Fitz’s sandwich and took a bite. He always complained when she ate his food, but secretly he loved it. Gestures like these suggested an intimacy between them that he longed for. He’d take what he could get on that front.</p>
<p>“Do you think we can trust him? Trust any of them?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” he said. He rubbed the back of his neck. “But we don’t have a choice, do we?”</p>
<p>Simmons shook her head. “That woman is some version of me; I know she is. And she’s unwell. We have to help her.”</p>
<p>“We will,” he said. He picked up the tablet again. “DNA, you say?”</p>
<p>She nodded, her mouth full of sandwich.</p>
<p>“Didn’t you theorize something like that in our second year at the Academy?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” she said. She swallowed and took a drink from his glass. OK, that was maybe too intimate. They weren’t animals. “But it was just a theory. I never came up with a plausible method. Right now it’s little more than science fiction.”</p>
<p>“But we’re not talking about now. We’re talking about the future.” He was up and pouring her her own glass of water. And getting her a napkin. Another fact he was just admitting to himself—he liked to care for her.</p>
<p>“What are you saying? That someone realized my idea in the future?”</p>
<p>“Maybe. Or maybe you did?”</p>
<p>Simmons put the glass he had handed her down and looked at him in surprise. “Are you suggesting that I gave myself an implant that erased all of my memories?”</p>
<p>Fitz came back to sit beside her. “Not you alone. I’ve been toying with the design for the implant in Amador’s eye, trying to come up with something we could use. And some of my ideas are eerily similar to—”</p>
<p>“To the implant in me. The other me.” Simmons took a moment to process and then looked at him. “You think we did this? But why?”</p>
<p>Fitz shook his head. “I don’t know. But we’d have to have a pretty good reason.”</p>
<p>A crease formed between Simmons’s eyebrows. “A good reason for me to forget you. What could that possibly be?”</p>
<p>Fitz ducked his head; he found he couldn’t look directly at her. “I don’t know, but if it’s true then it makes sense now why they had to come to us.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” she said. “They need us to solve a problem we made. In the future.” She shook her head as though she were trying to dislodge all the confusion. “Never a dull moment, is there?” She was doing the put-on-a-brave-face thing that she did, when she crushed her feelings into some place deep inside her and tried to look on the bright side. It looked exhausting. Not for the first time he was glad not to be English.</p>
<p>“We’ll sort it out.” He kept saying things like that, but that was because he didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t like to see her upset. And he didn’t like the idea that he—or a future he—was the cause.</p>
<p>She took another bite of sandwich. “Too much aioli this time, you think?” she said.</p>
<p>“No.” He watched her chew and close her eyes, like she was trying to taste it with every ounce of her being. She never did anything halfway, Jemma. It was one of the endless things that he loved about her. “Everything about it is perfect.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>xxx</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Deke</strong>
</p>
<p>The moment he left the commons area on the Bus Deke threw down his sandwich and started running. He didn’t stop until he’d reached the Zephyr, which was no small distance away. The Zephyr was cloaked in a field about a mile from the Bus, close enough that they could monitor the progress on Jemma and provide assistance if necessary. Right now Deke needed assistance.</p>
<p>“Mayday Mayday,” he said as he jogged up the ramp. “SOS and other emergency words! Serious problem.” He clutched his side, which was cramping from the speed of his run. “Help.”</p>
<p>“Deke, you OK?” Daisy looked like she was fiddling with something in a hidden corner of the plane—was that a typewriter? She covered it up with a tarp and walked toward him. “Take a breath.”</p>
<p>Deke breathed deeply and straightened up. “Something is terribly wrong. I think we messed up the timeline even more than we thought.”</p>
<p>“Why? What happened?”</p>
<p>“I was just talking to Fitz, and they aren’t together in this timeline.”</p>
<p>Daisy stared at him. “Who?”</p>
<p>“Fitz and Simmons. My grandparents. They aren’t a couple.”</p>
<p>Daisy nodded. “Right. So?”</p>
<p>“<em>So</em>?!” Deke didn’t think she was understanding him. Why didn’t anyone ever understand him?! “My grandparents aren’t together, meaning that I will never be born.”</p>
<p>Daisy shrugged. “Yeah, I’m pretty familiar with the whole ‘never going to be born’ scenario.”</p>
<p>“Right,” said Deke. “Sorry, I know that must suck for you and if you want to talk or whatever we can do that later. But right now we’re talking about me. And not just me. Nana and Bobo. And they. Aren’t. Together.”</p>
<p>He was getting pretty worked up, but he was tired of being ignored and having his feelings invalidated. Just because these lunatics walked in and out of trauma like it was all some freaking day spa didn’t mean he did. He was a sensitive soul; his mother had always said so.</p>
<p>“Hey, calm down, OK?” Daisy raised a hand, paused, and then awkwardly patted his shoulder. “It’s just, they weren’t a couple at this point anyway. Before we messed up the past.”</p>
<p>“They weren’t together? And no one thought to, I don’t know, mention that to me?”</p>
<p>Daisy shrugged. “I guess we forget who knows what. It’s all pretty confusing; this time travel stuff. It wasn’t intentional I promise.”</p>
<p>Deke took a deep breath. “So, why weren’t they together? I mean, he’s obviously in love with her.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” said Daisy.</p>
<p>“Wait, you knew? Back then?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. Everyone knew. Except them.” Daisy looked off into the distance like she was remembering the past. She smiled. “It was pretty ridiculous, actually.”</p>
<p>“When do they get together?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know exactly.” She frowned in thought. “I was kind of in and out for some of it. But I’d say at least a couple years from now.”</p>
<p>“A couple years?” Deke was aghast.</p>
<p>“Well, yeah, they sort of don’t speak for a while, and then Simmons dated that astronaut—”</p>
<p>Deke could feel a full panic attack coming on. “My Nana dated an astronaut?” He shook his head, and his eyes were wide. “Nope, no, that is not happening.”</p>
<p>Daisy smiled. “They’ll get together in the end. It just took them some time.”</p>
<p>“Time? Do you not see how crazy time is after all we’ve been through? We might have messed things up so much that they never get to be together. They’re always hurling themselves into danger. What if they don’t make it another couple of years?” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “What if they never do the thing they have to do to make my mom?”</p>
<p>“You know it’s called sex, right?”</p>
<p>“It’s not when it’s your grandparents, OK?”</p>
<p>Daisy shook her head. “Look, I—”</p>
<p>“We have to get them together. Speed things up.”</p>
<p>“Deke, messing with time like that could cause all sorts of—”</p>
<p>“You plucked your new boyfriend out of the 1950s. And he was supposed to be dead. That’s not messing with time?”</p>
<p>Daisy looked like she didn’t know what to say. It was the first time he had acknowledged that she was getting with Sousa. He had noticed her trying to hide it from him, but of course he knew. They all lived on the same spaceship for goodness sake. Anyway, it wasn’t like she had to hide it. He was a grownup, despite how everyone treated him. He knew when a woman didn’t want his lemons.</p>
<p>“Deke, I’m—”</p>
<p>“No.” He raised his hand to signal her to stop. “I’m happy for you, I am. And we can chat another time. But just, please, help me.”</p>
<p>Daisy sighed. “I’m not sure they’re even ready to be together now. Simmons is completely oblivious. I’m not sure it’s possible.”</p>
<p>Deke shook his head. “You’re forgetting who you’re talking to.” He pulled out his sunglasses and put them on. “I specialize in the impossible.”</p>
<p>Daisy blinked at him.</p>
<p>“Too much?” he asked.</p>
<p>“Yeah, just, don’t talk like that, ever again.”</p>
<p>“Roger that. So, what do we do? How do we get my grandparents to do each other?”</p>
<p>“Ew,” she said. “But it would be nice to see them avoid some of the heartbreak they have coming.”</p>
<p>“Exactly. See, we’re doing them a service.”</p>
<p>“By playing with their lives like gods?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Deke smiled. “I like the sound of that.”</p>
<p>Daisy sighed again. “What do you have in mind?”</p>
<p>“Oh, leave that to me. The D knows all about romance.”</p>
<p>Daisy rubbed her forehead. “This is going to be a nightmare.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So I intended to have both teams interact more, but it was too difficult to write two of everyone. I decided to focus on Deke and Baby FitzSimmons. But everyone plays a little role eventually.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Fitz</strong>
</p>
<p>Fitz wasn’t sure why there were so many lemons on the Bus now. Deke had said they were for “setting the mood,” whatever the hell that meant. Fitz just wanted to finish the design for the device to remove Jemma’s implant and then maybe hear some more of Deke’s time travel stories, but Deke seemed distracted.</p>
<p>“And you’re sure you don’t need Simmons for this?” Deke said. He was standing in the lab spinning a Night-Night gun without the safety on. Fitz took it from him and put it down.</p>
<p>“No, this is just tech analysis we’re doing. Simmons is still with the other her, running more tests.” They had moved the future Simmons to the containment room while they worked. Jemma was performing some cognitive tests using the device they had been tweaking before they went to the Lighthouse. It was delicate work that required calm and concentration, which is why she had requested Fitz keep Deke away.</p>
<p>“I just think you should be with Simmons, helping her and whatnot. You two make such a terrific team.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” said Fitz. “Can you hand me that multitool?” Deke slipped a multitool from his pocket and handed it to Fitz.</p>
<p>“If you want to go be with her, I can totally do this stuff on my own; it’s super simple. Reverse engineering tech is kind of my thing,” said Deke.</p>
<p>Fitz frowned down at the multitool Deke had handed him. “Then why did you come back in time to find us if you can do this yourself?”</p>
<p>“Oh, no. That’s not what I meant.” Deke seemed flustered. “I just meant that I could analyze the device.” He pointed to the shattered sensor that lay in pieces on Fitz’s lab table. “So you and Simmons can work together on the stuff I don’t know how to do.”</p>
<p>Fitz was still staring at the multitool. It was identical to his, except it looked older and had a number engraved into the side. “Where did you get this?”</p>
<p>“Woops,” said Deke. He snatched the tool from Fitz and threw it back in his pocket. He picked up Fitz’s tool from the counter and handed it to him. “They look so much alike I mixed them up.” He looked at Fitz, and Fitz could tell there was something he wasn’t saying.</p>
<p>“I guess it’s just another thing we have in common,” said Fitz. Deke exhaled with relief. He was behaving strangely—even more strangely than normal. Fitz turned back to the sensor that lay in pieces on his table. If he could just figure out what it did and what was missing—</p>
<p>“So, seen any good movies lately?” said Deke. Fitz stopped working and looked up at Deke.</p>
<p>“Are you asking me to one?”</p>
<p>“God no. That’s not. No.” Deke had that look of repulsion on his face again, the one that he had when Fitz had asked him if Deke were dating Future Simmons. Fitz was slightly insulted. He wasn’t that hideous. Maybe Deke was asexual?</p>
<p>“I was just thinking that you and Jemma might like to go to one. Together. Alone. You two must need some time off after all this craziness. Maybe you could have dinner somewhere nice too. I could arrange it—”</p>
<p>“Finally,” said Fitz. He had managed to connect the broken sensor to his computer so he could decipher its programming. “We should be getting somewhere soon.”</p>
<p>“Cool, yeah. That’s great.” Deke was fiddling with his own multitool. “So, anyway, about that date—”</p>
<p>“Date?” said Fitz. He had been reading the sensor’s code and not paying much attention to what Deke was saying, but he turned to face him fully now. “What do you mean ‘date?’”</p>
<p>“Not a date. I misspoke. Just time for you and Jemma to spend together, maybe with some wine, some mood lighting, the smell of citrus in the air. You know. Blow off some steam after all this stress.”</p>
<p>“That’s sounds exactly like a date.”</p>
<p>“Well…yeah? You were talking about her earlier, and I noticed—”</p>
<p>Fitz cut him off. He had to. He could feel himself blushing, and he really needed to get out of this conversation.</p>
<p>“You’re right,” he said.</p>
<p>“I am?” said Deke. He seemed surprised, but then he grinned. “I mean, of course I am.”</p>
<p>“I should go talk to Simmons,” Fitz stood, taking the sensor and his laptop with him. “I’ll just go show her this new data, and you can stay here and—try not to break anything.” Deke frowned. “Which would be super helpful and important work.”</p>
<p>Deke smiled. “Yeah, OK. You go get her, buddy.”</p>
<p>“Yep. I am going to go get Simmons,” said Fitz. He was backing out of the lab, clutching the sensor and his laptop to his chest. As soon as he cleared the door he turned and stumbled up the stairs. He scurried toward the containment room, trying not to drop the fragile sensor that was still connected to his laptop. He was doing pretty well until he almost ran headfirst into Simmons, who was walking toward him.</p>
<p>“Watch it,” he said. He clutched at the main chunk of the sensor and caught it just before it hit the ground.</p>
<p>“Well what are you doing, running around with that?” asked Simmons.</p>
<p>“Coming to find you.”</p>
<p>“I was coming to find you,” she said.</p>
<p>He followed her to the couch in the commons area, where he placed the equipment on the table. They sat down, turned to one another, and said in unison, “I found something.”</p>
<p>Fitz paused. “You go first.”</p>
<p>Simmons gestured back toward the containment pod. “She’s forgotten you, everything to do with you, but she has other gaps as well. Things that shouldn’t be tied to you. Memories about herself. Parts of her own identity. Our identity.” Simmons looked troubled. “She doesn’t remember things from our childhood—like certain stars our father taught us. They aren’t random memories, though. I can’t outline a pattern to it yet, but there is one. I just know there is.”</p>
<p>Fitz nodded. “Yeah, I’ve discovered a pattern too.”</p>
<p>Jemma glanced at his laptop screen. “What did you find?”</p>
<p>“I was looking at the sensor’s programming for clues. And I found a big one.”</p>
<p>Simmons was scanning the screen with her eyes. “Fitz, you know I’m not as good at you at—”</p>
<p>“It’s you,” he said. She looked up at him. “The sensor is programmed to only work for you, to match you’re DNA. Just like the implant.”</p>
<p>“I’m the only one who can use the sensor to remove the implant?”</p>
<p>“Yes.”</p>
<p>Simmons took a deep breath. “So we were right. We did this.”</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Fitz nodded. “The coding looks like mine as well.”</p>
<p>“Monkeys?” she asked.</p>
<p>He smiled. “Yeah.” Fitz had a habit of hiding a monkey or two into everything he designed. Sometimes it was the word or sometimes a tiny image, depending on the type of tech. It was sort of his signature. He had engraved a miniscule monkey inside the barrel of his prototype Night-Night gun. Simmons was the only one who knew.</p>
<p>“Most of it is regular code, but there are a couple of references to ‘protecting the little monkey.’” Fitz read the words off the screen. “Whatever that means.”</p>
<p>Simmons looked away from him. “I think I might know what it means.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>She turned to him, and he couldn’t read her expression, which was more than unusual—it was unprecedented. “I was conducting a routine physical, to rule out other causes for her condition…” She paused.</p>
<p>“And? Was there something else wrong?”</p>
<p>“Not exactly,” she said. “But she’s, well, she’s had a baby. In the last few years, I’d say.”</p>
<p>“A baby?” said Fitz. He was pretty sure his mouth was hanging open, and he was pretty sure he couldn’t close it.</p>
<p>“A little monkey,” said Simmons. She had a small smile on her face, like the idea of herself having a baby in the future wasn’t the most terrifying thing that had ever been contemplated. He couldn’t agree with her there. “But she doesn’t remember it—having the child.”</p>
<p>Fitz was still staring at her. “A baby?”</p>
<p>Simmons laughed softly. “Yes, Fitz. It’s not that surprising. I do want to have one someday.”</p>
<p>“You do?” His mouth felt dry. He wasn’t sure if he was startled by the idea of Simmons having a baby because he probably wasn’t the father or because of the slight hope in his heart that he was. Either way…a baby. Jesus Christ.</p>
<p>“So,” he said, trying to regain his faculties. “So, she—you—had a baby and forgot it.”</p>
<p>“Yes,” she said. “And we programmed her to forget you and forget the child. Possibly to protect you both.”</p>
<p>“Protect your baby.” He said. He wasn’t going to get over the baby part any time soon. Every time he said it it sounded stranger. Simmons as a mother. She would be a wonderful mother. And maybe he would get to see that someday.</p>
<p>“But wait,” he said. “If we were trying to protect them, then should we be doing this?” He gestured to the laptop and the sensor. “What if we’re putting them in danger?”</p>
<p>Simmons bit her lip. Nerves this time. “I don’t know. But she’s suffering. And how can forgetting her child be a good thing? Doesn’t a child need their mother?” Fitz was sensing that Simmons might not be able to be logical about this problem. Seeing herself in pain and sensing that her future child was in danger—she might not be able to stop herself from helping them even if she shouldn’t. Who could blame her?</p>
<p>“There’s another issue,” he said. “Why would the team from the future be hiding all of this from us? If they thought that helping the other you would really put me or her child in danger, why would they do it?”</p>
<p>“Because it won’t?” said Simmons. “Because helping her regain her memories is the right thing to do?” She sounded so hopeful.</p>
<p>Fitz wanted to reassure her, but he didn’t want to lie. “I’m not sure about that,” he said.</p>
<p>Simmons frowned. “What else have you discovered?”</p>
<p>Fitz shook his head. “It’s not something I’ve discovered; it’s something I’ve sensed.” He took a deep breath. “Deke is lying to us.”</p>
<p>Simmons raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Not your new bestie?”</p>
<p>Fitz rolled his eyes. “I know, I know, I don’t want to believe it. But he’s hiding something. I can feel it. He’s been trying to get you and I alone. He was trying to get me to leave the lab earlier.”</p>
<p>“Why? So he can be by himself in there?”</p>
<p>“Maybe? I didn’t know why—”</p>
<p>“So you gave him exactly what he wanted? What if he’s been trying to get us out of the lab this whole time for some nefarious purpose and you just left him in there?” Simmons stood, like she was going to rush off to the lab.</p>
<p>Fitz grabbed her arm and gently tugged her back down. “I think he needs more than a few minutes for whatever he has planned—he kept talking about us taking an entire evening off. Just us.” Fitz was trying not to think about the exact nature of Deke’s suggestions, because he was also trying not to start blushing again. He didn’t understand why Deke was trying to manipulate them into going on a date, but he sensed the man was using Fitz’s feelings for Simmons against him. It was cruel and embarrassing. And sad. He had so wanted to trust Deke.</p>
<p>“You think they have another purpose in coming here? Maybe something bad?” she asked.</p>
<p>Fitz sighed. “I don’t want to think that. But yeah. Maybe.”</p>
<p>“We’ll have to determine what he’s after. Trick him back.” She gave Fitz a questioning look. “Right?” For members of a spy agency, espionage wasn’t really their field of expertise.</p>
<p>“Sure,” he said. “We have to figure out if we should be helping them or not. And to do that we need to know what he’s hiding.”</p>
<p>“So we get up to some shenanigans,” said Simmons. She took a deep breath and straightened her spine. “I’ll need some time to prepare.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think that will be—”</p>
<p>“Hey guys,” said Deke. He was trotting up to them from the stairs. “I was wondering what you were up to. Taking some time alone, I see.” He winked at Fitz. Fitz felt an impending sense of doom. Simmons was wonderful in many ways, but she couldn’t lie to save her life. And Deke seemed determined to humiliate him. Or do something evil, like steal dangerous tech or destroy the world. But Fitz’s immediate concern was the humiliation.</p>
<p>“We were discussing taking some time alone this evening,” said Simmons. “Just the two of us. Far away from the lab. Where you can be alone. Without anyone else around. Which is what the word ‘alone’ means,” said Simmons. She was twisting a lock of her hair around her finger and nodding a lot. Fitz watched with wide eyes.</p>
<p>“OK, great,” said Deke. If he noticed that something was wrong with Simmons (like that she was having a stroke possibly—what the hell Jemma?!), he didn’t acknowledge it. He seemed thrilled. “I can arrange a fancy dinner—you’ll love it, trust me.” He grinned at Fitz. “Wow, this turned out to be so much easier than I thought. I’ll go tell Dai—Skye!”</p>
<p>He ran off back down the stairs, and Simmons turned to Fitz. “Well?” she said, with a proud tilt to her chin that suggested she expected praise.</p>
<p>“Uhhh, let’s just go tell the team and see what they think.”</p>
<p>“No, we can’t.”</p>
<p>“We can’t?”</p>
<p>“Didn’t you hear him? ‘I’ll go tell Skye.’ She must be in on it.”</p>
<p>“The future her maybe.”</p>
<p>“But do we know that for certain? Both Skyes and both Coulsons are the main ones trying to convince us to undo a device we developed.” Simmons leaned into him and whispered. “What if they’re the ones we needed protection from?”</p>
<p>Fitz shook his head. “Simmons—”</p>
<p>“I don’t think we should tell them. Tell anyone. Until we’re sure.”</p>
<p>He leaned away from her. In her excitement and quest for secrecy she was almost on top of him. Her eyes looked so clear and determined. Such a contrast to the sad and haunting eyes of the woman who now sat in their containment room.</p>
<p>“All right,” he said. “What do we need to do?”</p>
<p>“Simple,” she said. “We appear to play along with Deke’s plan, but secretly we spy on him. We play a player.” She looked so proud of herself.</p>
<p>“And how do we do that?”</p>
<p>Simmons scoffed. “Between us two geniuses I’m sure we’ll think of something.”</p>
<p>“Right,” said Fitz. Simmons attempting to lie and Deke arranging a date for them. What could possibly go wrong?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>xxx</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <strong>Deke</strong>
</p>
<p>OK, this was gonna be awesome. Deke was running back to the Zephyr again, but this time with excellent news. He found the entire team sprawled out around the comms center of the plane, eating. They were having family dinner? And they didn’t invite him?</p>
<p>“Hey Deke,” said Daisy. “Had any luck playing matchmaker yet?”</p>
<p>Yo-Yo snorted before taking a bite of her taco.</p>
<p>“Yes,” said Deke. “Actually I’ve had a lot of success.” Why didn’t they think he could do anything? There were a lot of things he could do. Just because he couldn’t run super-fast or shoot vibrations from his fingertips, you’d think he was useless. At least Fitz understood. They’d had a whole conversation about what it was like to be unappreciated.</p>
<p>“And by ‘a lot of success’ you mean what exactly?” said Daisy.</p>
<p>“Fitz and Simmons are going on a date tonight. They both agreed to it.”</p>
<p>Mack squinted at him. “They both agreed to it? Turbo and Simmons? Just like that?”</p>
<p>“Yes. Simmons was so excited she was talking really weird and twirling her hair.”</p>
<p>“When you say twirling her hair—” said Coulson.</p>
<p>Deke rolled his eyes and did his best Nana impersonation. He twisted a finger in his much shorter hair and said, “Yes, we’d love to leave you all alone in our lab. We’ll go do something together and leave you all alone in there.” Deke looked around at their blank faces. “What? It’s not as excellent as my Bobo impression, but I think it’s pretty good.”</p>
<p>Daisy shook her head. “Is that really what she said?”</p>
<p>“Basically.”</p>
<p>Daisy looked at Coulson, and he sighed and put down his taco. “I can’t eat it anyway. But it looked good.”</p>
<p>Mack put down his taco. He looked exhausted. “Coulson and Daisy—”</p>
<p>“On it,” she said. Daisy wiped her hands on her napkin. “I guess we need to move.”</p>
<p>“What is happening?” asked Deke.</p>
<p>Coulson had stood and was putting on his suit jacket. “What you described Simmons doing—that was her lying.”</p>
<p>“Lying?” Deke didn’t believe that. His Nana wouldn’t lie to him. Of course, she didn’t know she was his Nana, and the first time he’d met her for real she hadn’t liked him much, but he thought they were past all that.</p>
<p>“Wait, I’ve seen Nana lie. She doesn’t do weird hair-twirlies.”</p>
<p>“That was after she changed,” said Daisy.</p>
<p>“Changed?” Deke had noticed Nana and Bobo were different, but he had just chalked that up to them being younger. What had happened to them?</p>
<p>“She was a terrible liar back when we first met,” said Daisy.</p>
<p>“She got better,” said May. She was still eating her taco.</p>
<p>“So,” said Deke, still trying to process what the rest of them seemed to have understood immediately. “Why was she lying to me?”</p>
<p>“What exactly did you say to them?” asked Sousa. Sousa, god that man was so perfect. Even the way he was staring at his taco like it was from another planet was adorable. Deke couldn’t bring himself to be angry with Sousa for his obvious flirtation with Daisy. With his suspenders and his golly gee vibe, even Deke thought Sousa was just the tiniest bit hot.</p>
<p>“I said,” said Deke, shaking his head to clear the thoughts of a hot Sousa from his mind, “that I thought that they should leave the lab and go out. Just the two of them. And leave me alone in their lab and—” Deke frowned. “Oh, I get it now.”</p>
<p>“It sounds like bad at lying runs in the family,” said Yo-Yo, pouring hot sauce on a taco.</p>
<p>“I’ll talk to them,” said Daisy. “Explain you’re not suspicious; you’re just weird.”</p>
<p>“No,” said Deke. “I can fix this.”</p>
<p>Daisy, who was strapping on her gauntlets, shook her head. “No offense, Deke, but every time we send you in alone you mess something up.”</p>
<p>“Hey,” said Deke. “That’s not fair.” He struggled to think of a time when they had sent him in alone and he hadn’t messed something up. If he’d had more time, he totally could have thought of one. “I’m an agent same as you, and I will solve this problem on my own. And you know why?”</p>
<p>“Because you’re the one who created it?” asked Mack.</p>
<p>“No,” said Deke. “Although that’s a pretty good reason. I will fix it, because that’s what I do. I get in bad situations, and I get out of them. And I’m a people person. And this is my family, so they’re my responsibility. And also, I’ve already booked them a fancy meal that’s nonrefundable, so I have to figure out what to do about that…”</p>
<p>“Good,” said Coulson. He sat back down. “I was really enjoying staring at this taco.”</p>
<p>“I—” began Daisy, but Sousa put a hand on her shoulder.</p>
<p>“Maybe let him figure it out on his own,” he said. He gave Deke a nod. “I’m sure he can do it.”</p>
<p>Daisy shrugged and said, “OK.” She seemed like she was trying not to smile at Sousa’s hand on her shoulder.</p>
<p>She and Sousa sat down next to one another.</p>
<p>“You just need me here to show you how to eat a taco, don’t you?” she said.</p>
<p>“It keeps falling apart,” said Sousa.</p>
<p>That guy, thought Deke. He made it so hard to hate him.</p>
<p>Mack sighed. “It’s not like this other timeline could get any more messed up anyway. I don’t know why I even bother with my ripple speech anymore.”</p>
<p>“Hey, it’s not that messed up here,” said Deke.</p>
<p>“Besides the fact that I exist in this future when we just saw my mother die before I was born, yeah, nothing weird here,” said Daisy.</p>
<p>“Wait, I—” Deke stopped talking. Which even he had to acknowledge was unlike him.</p>
<p>“I knew it. You didn’t notice, did you?” said Daisy, a smile on her face.</p>
<p>“I noticed the younger you existed here, obviously.” Of course he’d noticed her. Skye was kind of hot, although still clearly not interested in him. “I was just too distracted by Nana and Bobo to think about how you, you know, shouldn’t be alive.”</p>
<p>Deke trailed off. He looked around at the team. “You all knew?”</p>
<p>They nodded. “We’ve been trying to figure it out this whole time, while you’ve been arranging dinner dates,” said Mack.</p>
<p>“The time drive must still be glitching.” Deke shook his head. “We skipped to a new timeline? Like in my multiverse theory?” Deke asked.</p>
<p>Yo-Yo shrugged. “You’re the genius; you tell us. We’re not the ideas people. I just go where I’m pointed.” She smiled. “And I go really fast.”</p>
<p>“If we can jump dimensions, then that opens up all kinds of possibilities. Maybe the jump drive can get us back to our own timeline!” said Deke. Had Fitz discovered not only how to travel through time but also how to jump between dimensions? Deke had even more questions for him now. They had to find him.</p>
<p>“That’s what I was hoping you’d say,” said Mack. “And while you figure that out, I guess it can’t hurt too much for you to mess around here.”</p>
<p>“If by mess around you mean create the perfect universe in which my Nana and Bobo are happy and in love and never date astronauts—”</p>
<p>“Or evil she-robots,” said May.</p>
<p>“Wait, which one of them—you know what, don’t tell me,” said Deke. He looked at Mack. “So I have your blessing to do what I want?”</p>
<p>Mack picked up his taco. “As long as I don’t have to hear about it.”</p>
<p>Deke took a deep breath and straightened up to his full height. “Prepare yourselves folks. You are about to see a master time traveler at work.”</p>
<p>As he turned and marched down the ramp, he heard Coulson say, “Does that mean I can go take a ride in Lola?”</p>
<p>Mack sighed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Right, so this is where the details get iffy, as I warned about at the beginning. How did they jump timelines without Fitz's device thingy? Uhhh, not sure? I wanted Skye to be on the Bus and Deke to be able to do whatever he wants with a new timeline, so...just don't look too closely at it, maybe? Please and thank you?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Fitz</strong>
</p><p>Fitz wasn’t sure what they were supposed to do now. Simmons was humming with excitement, but he didn’t know why.</p><p>“Uh, Simmons?”</p><p>“Yes.” She was bustling around the lab, uploading the results from her tests on Future Simmons while also trying to put on makeup and fix her hair. (The hair thing he didn’t get. It was in a ponytail still, but somehow this was a sleeker ponytail? It looked nice.)</p><p>“What are you doing?”</p><p>“I’m getting ready.”</p><p>“For what, exactly?</p><p>“He said he’d book us a fancy dinner,” she said. “We have to look the part.” She looked Fitz up and down. “I’ll pick out something for you to wear.”</p><p>“Right, but we’re not actually planning to go to the dinner, are we?”</p><p>“Heavens no,” said Simmons. “We’re going to make him think we’re going and then double back and catch him in the act.”</p><p>“In the act of what?”</p><p>“The act of—the act of crime, Fitz. Or something else bad—I don’t know. We know he’s up to something, don’t we?”</p><p>“Yeah,” said Fitz. He was a bit sad that they weren’t going to the dinner. Even if it was all a ruse, he liked the idea of spending some time away from the Bus. And Simmons looked so pretty.</p><p>Simmons, misinterpreting Fitz’s downcast expression, put her hand on his shoulder. “I know you’re fond of him, Fitz. But we work for a spy agency—not everyone we meet will be trustworthy. You still have plenty of friends on this Bus—Skye and Coulson and May and Ward.”</p><p>She pulled him in and kissed his cheek. “And you’ll always have me,” she said.</p><p>He felt like his stomach had dropped to the floor. God she looked even more beautiful up close. And she smelled nice. Like only Simmons could smell.</p><p>“And you know I’ll never lie to you, Fitz.” She smiled at him and then walked away, like she hadn’t just crushed his soul. She would never lie to him. But of course he was lying to her every second of every day now that he knew he loved her.</p><p>“Simmons?” he said to her back. She was shedding her lab coat and—good lord were those leather pants? Had she borrowed them from May?</p><p>“Hmmm?” she said. She turned back to look at him, a happy smile on her face. “What is it?”</p><p>“Umm.” The leather pants had short-circuited his brain for a moment, but he was regaining focus like a champ. “There’s something I wanted to tell you.”</p><p>Which is of course the moment when Deke bounced back into the lab. Perfect terrible timing. Did Fitz have the worst luck of any human ever? Was he cursed by the universe?</p><p>“Sorry,” said Deke. “I had important future stuff.” He looked at the fancy Simmons and then at the exasperated expression on Fitz’s face. “Did I interrupt something?”</p><p>“No,” said Simmons, plastering a smile on her face, a smile which looked even more disconcerting with her new crimson lipstick. “We are now ready to do whatever it is that you had suggested to keep us away from the lab.” She winked at Fitz, and Deke’s eyes widened.</p><p>Fitz mouthed, “What are you doing?” behind Deke’s back.</p><p>Deke cleared his throat. “Yeah, so there’s been a change of plans,” he said. “No date night for you two.”</p><p>Simmons blinked. “Date?”</p><p>“Yeah, I think I misread the situation earlier. I—” Deke looked between the two of them, “I guess I thought you two were, you know, a couple, or whatever, and I didn’t realize that suggesting a date would be weird.” He looked at Simmons again. “Or make you act weird.”</p><p>“Oh,” said Simmons. “No, no nothing weird at all. I’m not weird. We’re not weird. Dates aren’t weird.”</p><p>She was skipping like a record, and Fitz had had enough. Better to get this out in the open, before Simmons really did have a stroke. “Listen mate: are you up to no good? Because it seems like you’re hiding something.”</p><p>“No,” said Deke. “I’m not…” He stopped and sighed. He seemed to have had enough of the subterfuge as well. Fitz and Deke really were a lot alike. “Yes, I am hiding something. But no,” he made a point of looking them in the eyes as he emphasized each word, “I am not ‘up to no good.’” He took the multitool out of his pocket and placed it on the table in front of them. “I’m up to very good. I’m up to the goodest.”</p><p>Fitz stared at the tool and then up at Deke. “Why are you showing me that?”</p><p>“Because you gave it to me. You will give it to me. In the future.”</p><p>Fitz shook his head. “It looks different.”</p><p>“Things happen between now and then.” Deke pointed to the tool, worn and scarred by events Fitz couldn’t imagine.</p><p>“What things?” asked Simmons.</p><p>“I don’t know.” Deke said. “I don’t know everything. I know that you’re different in the future, but I also know that you are just as wonderful then as you are now.”</p><p>“Why would I give it to you?” Fitz gestured to the tool. He was afraid. He had been afraid ever since Simmons had shown up from the future without him. “What happens to me?”</p><p>Deke took the tool back and put it in his pocket. “We don’t know. That’s why we need Simmons’s memories back, because she does know. But you’re out there somewhere; you have to be. You’re the only one who can save us.”</p><p>“But why would I give—” Fitz was again gesturing to the tool, now in Deke’s pocket.</p><p>“Because we’re family,” said Deke, cutting him off. He put his hands up like he was surrendering. “I know how that sounds, but we are. I can’t explain, I mean, I don’t <em>want</em> to explain because I don’t want to freak you out, but—”</p><p>“That makes sense.”” said Simmons, and both men turned to her. She looked at Fitz. “From what we’ve discovered about the future me,” she said to him. And Fitz was certain he wasn’t thinking what she was thinking. Because Deke was their age or even older than them, that didn’t make any—</p><p>“You’re from the future,” she said to Deke. “The further future.”</p><p>Deke closed his eyes, and when he opened them they were shining with tears. “I knew you’d understand, if anyone would.”</p><p>She reached up her hand to his cheek. “My son,” she said.</p><p>Deke dodged her hand and said, “Oh, no, so maybe you don’t understand. Not son, exactly.”</p><p>“Grandson?” she asked.</p><p>He smiled. “I shouldn’t be telling you both this. I guess it didn’t destroy the universe the first time you found out, though. Or maybe it did? Huh.”</p><p>“Why both of us?” Fitz asked. “Why would you need to be telling both of us?” He wasn’t going to give up on the tiny hope in his heart. The multitool was his. He wanted Deke to say it. He had never wanted anything so much.</p><p>“Well,” said Deke, looking back and forth between the two of them as though he were uncertain what to say. “You’re both my family.”</p><p>There it was. Fitz inhaled a ragged breath but couldn’t bring himself to look at Simmons. He heard her gasp and say, “You mean…?”</p><p>Deke nodded. “That’s why I was trying to get you to go on a date. I didn’t know you were just friends back in this time, and I was confused.” His eyes were shining again. “I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t mess stuff up. I tend to do that.”</p><p>Simmons immediately went into a mode Fitz had never seen before, a sort of protective mother hen role. It suited her.</p><p>“Who told you that? Of course you’re not making a mess. We’re not a mess. And we’re very happy to meet our grandson from the future, who we made, because one day we will do…couple things.” Simmons was running out of steam, which was usually Fitz’s cue to jump in and rescue her. He’d spent most of his life rescuing her, it seemed. This time he was at a loss. She looked at him with panic in her eyes, and he tried to find his voice.</p><p>“Yeah,” he said. “Couple things.” He wasn’t certain that had helped.</p><p>“OK,” said Deke, “for once I think I might be the most mature one of us, so let me just explain that you two are a happy and loving couple when I meet you in the future. Like one of those forever-love type of couples. No pressure or anything. But it looked nice.”</p><p>Simmons’s mouth fell open a little, and Fitz wasn’t sure she was still breathing.</p><p>“Yeah, thanks for that, Deke,” he said. He rubbed Simmons’s upper arm, hoping to get some circulation going. “I think we might need some time to process all of this.”</p><p>“Right,” said Deke. Fitz raised his eyebrows, and Deke said “Oohhh, right. I get it. Alone time.” He winked at Fitz, which Simmons could undoubtedly see. Some things did run in the family. “I’ll just keep working on the thing.” He pointed to the sensor. “Look at all the data you’ve collected. You two take all the time you need.”</p><p>Fitz pulled Simmons from the lab. She seemed like she was in some kind of trance, but she let him lead her up the spiral staircase and sit her down on the sofa. The rest of the team had gone out for dinner, since they were in a holding pattern until FitzSimmons could figure out a solution. He was glad for the quiet.</p><p>“You all right?” he asked.</p><p>Simmons wasn’t looking at him. “I don’t know,” she said.</p><p>“Me either.”</p><p>“Do you think he’s lying?” she asked.</p><p>“About which part?”</p><p>“All of it? Any of it?” She shook her head. “A man shows up from the future and tells you he’s your grandson—shouldn’t we question it?”</p><p>Fitz nodded. “Yeah, yeah we should.”</p><p>They sat in silence for a few seconds before Simmons spoke.</p><p>“He’s telling the truth, though, isn’t he?”</p><p>Fitz nodded again. “Yes,” he said. He wasn’t sure how he knew, if it was the things Deke said or the way he said them, but he believed him. And not just because he wanted to.</p><p>“But us, a couple?” said Simmons. She didn’t sound like she was opposed to the idea, more like she was gauging his reaction.</p><p>He looked her in the eye and said, “Yeah.”</p><p>She bit her lip and looked down. “I suppose it’s not the most ridiculous idea. We do get on well. And you would make a wonderful father.” She had a far-away look in her eyes, like an image was playing out before them that only she could see. He wondered what she was imagining and if she had imagined it before.</p><p>“Simmons,” he said. This time he was going to get it out. “That thing I was going to tell you earlier,” he said. She focused her gaze back on him. And then Deke ran up the stairs. Honestly, it was like they were on some kind of television series, with Deke the nosy neighbor always interrupting them at the worst times.</p><p>“Hey guys, hey I found something!” Deke was out of breath and excited. “BTdubs, who designed those stairs? Seriously, a spiral staircase on a plane? That has to be some kind of safety hazard.”</p><p>“What is it, Deke?” said Fitz.</p><p>“Right,” he said. “I found something in the data you and Nana”—Simmons’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head— “uploaded. You have to come see.” He grinned at them. “I think we can solve it.”</p><p>Fitz glanced at Simmons, who still looked shaken by the “Nana.” “Lead the way,” he said to Deke. He put a supportive hand on her elbow as they left the room, and Simmons covered his hand with her own.</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>Deke</strong>
</p><p>Deke had to say, he excelled at time travel. Like, if time travel was a company, he’d be the CEO of it. He was the best.</p><p>And Nana and Bobo even agreed with him. Well, they didn’t say so, and they both still looked pretty freaked out about him being their grandson, but all in all he’d say he had nailed this mission. Take that, Daisy.</p><p>“So, what you’re saying is—”</p><p>“that the sensor—”</p><p>“goes in and cuts the implant’s internal power supply—”</p><p>“which is like the one in Amador’s eye—"</p><p>“and that stops the kill switch and other means for the implant to resist removal.”</p><p>Deke’s eyes were tracking back and forth between Fitz and Simmons like he was watching a tennis match. They were speaking so quickly that he wasn’t entirely sure what they were saying, but he knew that they knew (and seemed excited), which meant Team FitzSimmons was on the right track.</p><p>“Yes to all that,” he said, “but there’s still a problem. Fitz and I can rebuild the sensor now that we know what it does, but it looks like the implant still requires a password before it can be removed.” He turned to Jemma. “Any ideas?”</p><p>Jemma shook her head, but then her eyes lit up and a small smile crept across her face.</p><p>“I know that look,” said Fitz.</p><p>“I have an idea,” she said.</p><p>“A good one?” asked Deke. He really didn’t want to fry his Nana’s brain any more than it already had been.</p><p>Jemma gave him a pointed look. “I only have good ideas,” she said.</p><p>He was reminded of the strong grandmother he had grown to know and admire over the last few…months? Years? Units of time had almost no meaning anymore. He had known her long enough to care for her deeply, that much he knew.</p><p>Deke grinned. “OK then.”</p><p>“Let’s rebuild the device,” said Fitz. He was looking at Jemma like he had never seen anything like her before. And also like he was thinking about doing…couple things. Maybe Deke would be born in this timeline after all. He had gone back in time and gotten his grandparents together, like the master of time travel that he was. Deke Shaw, Time God. Time King? Time Annihilator? Whatever, he’d focus group it later.</p><p>“OK,” said Deke. “Let’s land this like it’s launch day, people.” He saw Fitz and Simmons glance at one another—he was tripping them up with his future lingo. Poor grandparents. So out of touch. Still, though, they were going to solve the problem and save his Nana and his Bobo and his world, he could feel it. The three of them together were unstoppable.</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <strong>Fitz</strong>
</p><p>What Fitz didn’t understand was how she had known.</p><p>“Alya?” he said. “Is that a password you often use?”</p><p>“No,” said Simmons. She was tidying up the lab after the removal of the implant. It was just the two of them. Deke had held his Nana’s hand during the procedure and had assisted her from the plane when it was over. She had broken down in sobs the moment the implant was removed. Fitz and Simmons had watched her leave in silence. FItz didn’t know what to say. He suspected Simmons didn’t either.</p><p>“Then how did you--”</p><p>“Theta Serpentis,” she said.</p><p>“The constellation?”</p><p>Simmons nodded. She had disinfected the implant and now held it in her hand. It looked so small.</p><p>“She spoke often of the stars in her ramblings, and she could remember many of them but not our favorite constellation. She kept talking about how the stars were missing from her sky.”</p><p>“And you took that to mean—”</p><p>“The password had to be something blocked from her memory.” She looked at him. “And I didn’t think it could be you. That would be too obvious.” Her cheeks reddened like this admission embarrassed her.</p><p>Fitz still didn’t understand, but there were many things about her that he didn’t understand. For all he knew about Jemma—all the ways in which she felt familiar, like an extension of his own person—he also knew that she was about the most confounding thing he had ever encountered. He thought he could spend a lifetime—several lifetimes even—with this woman and never solve the mystery that was her.</p><p>He walked over to her and took the implant from her hand. “Should we upload the specs?” he asked.</p><p>She nodded. And then she placed her hand on his forearm. “But maybe we don’t send them back to HQ?”</p><p>He nodded. “Yeah.” She was staring into his eyes. “Simmons, Jemma, I wanted to tell you—”</p><p>“Good news, guys!” Deke trotted back into the lab. OK, it was official. Fitz’s grandson was the worst. At timing, anyway.</p><p>“I know that Nana’s reaction to removing the implant was—” Deke seemed to be searching for the right word.</p><p>“Disturbing?” said Simmons.</p><p>“Unsettling?” said Fitz.</p><p>“I was gonna say not the best, but things are looking up. She remembers how to fix the time drive so we can make it back to our last timeline. And she remembers how to get Fitz back once we’re there. And he can save the world. Probably. So, yay we saved the day.”</p><p>Fitz didn’t feel like smiling, but he did think this was good news. He glanced at Simmons, who was staring at Deke.</p><p>“You’re leaving then,” she said.</p><p>He nodded. He looked at her like he was in pain. Whoever this man was and wherever he had come from, he cared about Simmons. And for that Fitz would always appreciate him.</p><p>Fitz reached out his hand. “Good luck. I hope you succeed.”</p><p>“I’m sure you will,” said Simmons.</p><p>Deke moved to shake Fitz’s outstretched hand but then lunged forward and grabbed him in an awkward hug. Fitz wasn’t a big fan of human contact, but he patted Deke’s back. He would miss him. Fitz looked over Deke’s shoulder at Simmons, who smiled. Fitz smiled back.</p><p>Deke hugged Simmons as well, and then he wiped his eyes and began walking backwards down the ramp of the plane. “I’ll totally see you again though, someday. As long as you, you know.” He bumped his fists together, and Simmons tilted her head in confusion.</p><p>“What does that mean?” she asked.</p><p>Fitz took her hand as they walked out of the lab after Deke, and she let him. “I’ll explain it to you later.”</p><p>“And you two can totally do the dinner still some night; it’s already paid for,” said Deke. He grinned. “Just saying—it’s yours if you want.”</p><p>“Maybe we could,” said Simmons. “And you can finally finish telling me whatever it is you’ve wanted to tell me.” She looked at Fitz shyly, like she might already have guessed what he wanted to talk about.</p><p>The team walked up the loading ramp of the Bus just as Deke was walking out, and they all greeted him.</p><p>“I was just leaving,” said Deke. “But you’ll see me again someday, don’t you worry.”</p><p>“I wasn’t worried,” said Skye.</p><p>Deke shrugged. “Yeah I’ve figured that out about you. But hey, I’ve moved on, so no big deal.”</p><p>“Huh?” said Skye.</p><p>“Just take care of them,” he said to the team, with a glance to FitzSimmons.</p><p>“Will do,” said Coulson.</p><p>Deke backed down the ramp and off the plane. Just before he reached the ground he said, “Oh, and that guy—” he pointed to Ward, “is totally Hydra.”</p><p>The team stared at one another in confusion. Ward started to inch away from the rest of them.</p><p>“See ya! Have a nice timeline!” Deke ran in the direction of his spaceship and out of sight.</p><p>Coulson looked at Ward, who was reaching for his gun. “Well, that was certainly an interesting couple of days.”</p><p>Fitz felt Simmons grip his hand tighter as they watched May sneaking up behind Ward with a Night-Night gun drawn. Fitz was pretty certain the interesting part was just getting started.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you all so much for reading this and for your kudos and comments of support. Since the show has ended I've had trouble writing, but you've all been so kind about this story. I hope it made you smile. I think we all need something to smile about these days. (And what sparks more joy than May shooting Ward?)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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